Stephen Reviews: GLOW

In the 1980s Professional Wrestling was rising on Cable TV Thanks to Vince McMahon's WWF and Ted Turner's WCW. Wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Andre The Giant, Roddy Piper etc.. Were selling out arenas and TV time nationwide. Meanwhile in California a former movie director was scouting female talent for an all womens wrestling show called GLOW.

To start off the show stars Alison Brie (Mad Men) as a female protagonist named Ruth who has tried for years to get play and screen acting jobs in LA but nothing ever comes out of it. But an agent calls her and tells her she got an audition for a Wrestling show. Over time Ruth and a bunch of other women learn that by the power of team work and support they can make the impossible possible. This show also deals with the problems of prejudice on all levels whether it is sexism as The women are harrased constantly by a male chauvanist director, Racism is is a huge topic throughout the series. In one scene two African American ladies fight two white ladies who are wearing fake KKK robes. There is also the negative stereotype of the welfare queen who is portayed as being lazy and living off food stamps. The negative typecasting of an Indian woman as a Lebanese Terrorist and a cambodian woman as a Chinese Communist. There is also a negative stereotype of an American woman as a Soviet sympathizer. This show also deals with other issues like Abortion, adultery, long lost parents, misogony, and drug use.

Altogether I give the show a 3/5 rating. If you like Orange Is The New Black you might like this show. The reason I rate is so so is because there are some offensive themes. But not the main reason. That would be that growing up I watched a lot of Wrestling. One thing wrestlers do not like that this show does is that it exposes them as fake. Wrestlers tend to get very pissy about calling their business fake. The acting otherwise is good and the storylines do make sense. I would recommend to watch at least the first episode even if you are not into wrestling because the show really isn't about wrestling so much as it is about working as a team and the power of equality. The show is available now on Netflix and has 10 episodes.

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I haven't seen the show but I actually remember the original show from the 1980s - Women's wrestling is a strange thing, it was very much tits n' ass/valets until say around 2000 and it is probably just fortunate that you had Trish Stratus and Lita at the same time who were attractive women but could wrestle as well. It was amazing Trish was hired as a big titted blonde and was that for first year but then it changed maybe she got a new trainer but she stepped up, began to interact with Lita and they brought the best out of each other making womens' wrestling what it is today. As for the fake idea, it is fake but go deeper into it and look at things like the secrets of pro wrestling documentary then you realise the skill of the wrestlers and the danger they are in. Say for example most aerial moves it is the person on the ground who is most important, they have to catch other person and break the fall all the time making look like an offensive move or pre HD cameras why all wrestlers had long hair so they could talk to each other in holds and plan the path of the bout in real time.Back to GLOW it was an interesting example of the times but if you wanted to celebrate womens' wrestling there would be other people I would pick to portray.